Romney’s Dog, Campaign Finance, and Guns: American Culture through the Rodong Sinmun Lens

Romney’s Dog, Campaign Finance, and the NBA Playoffs: American Culture through the Rodong Sinmun Lens

by Adam Cathcart

As anyone with even a passing interest in the DPRK can attest, of the themes which variously thunder, thrum, or skip intermittently through the North Korean media, criticism of the United States is a constant. The recent anniversary celebrations of the Children’s Union in the DPRK were a case in point: amid the children’s heavily-scheduled itineraries, it was deemed more important for union members to spend an afternoon learning about American atrocities in the Korean War than wandering through the futuristic apartment blocs at Mangyongdae, presumably the ultimate end for supremely loyal cadre and final defense point for the Korean People’s Army.

China, having failed to detonate the foundations of an 80-year relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and its difficult Korean friends, gets a pass in the North Korean press, and this week they proved why: Chinese factories are supplying Children’s Union members with backpacks and consumer goods, and the People’s Daily cared enough to send a delegation of female reporters to spend five days being trailed by Rodong Sinmun female reporters in Pyongyang. This kind of socialist neo-internationalism has its benefits. As a Chinese reporter, when you come home from North Korea and can publish a headlines like “North Korea Lavishes Care on its Children and Kindergartens: Kids Eat Five Meals a Day,” you know that, presumably, you’ve done your part for international harmony. Take that, CNN!

Given the nature of their craft and the strong rhetorical support they have been receiving from Chinese colleagues, perhaps we should not be surprised, then, that the editorial staff at Rodong Sinmun occasionally strikes upon a novel theme that is worth reprinting in full. While editorialist Jon Yong Hui does not appear to have an e-mail address whereby we could solicit an exclusive guest post, we at SinoNK.com would never wish to deny the DPRK its due, and as the Korean News Service does permit full reproduction of its stories so long as attribution is granted, we are pleased to bring our readers three recent Rodong Sinmun commentaries without further ado.

Scrambles for Power (Staff editorial, Rodong Sinmun, June 9, 2012)

There is presidential election in the United States in the coming November. The two candidates, one from the Democratic Party and the other from the Republican Party, have made a grab at each other. While they are engaged in a hard scramble, finding fault with each other’s home and foreign policies and energy issues, something extraordinary happened to Romney’s pet dog.

The story goes back to 1983.

The Romney’s were on their journey by car, having their pet dog in a basket for some 12 hours. On the way the dog was found suffering from loose vowels. Romney got off the car at an oil station and hosed down the dog to wash it.

This, however, caused an immediate rebuff from the pet lovers. They blamed him for cruelty to pet. An organization named “Pets against Romney” was formed and there was a demonstration in New York against his cruelty on the pet.

A little later Mrs. Romney appeared on TV. Excusing her family, she said: “The dog looked gay then.” This added fuel to the pet lovers’ anger.

Losing no chance, Obama tried to create an image contrary to that of Romney. He posted in the internet a picture showing him getting in a car together with his pet dog. Below the picture was an illustration reading, “the master who loves his pet behaves like this.”

Having come this far, the Republican Party on its part brought out one of Obama’s past stories. The story told that while in Indonesia in his childhood Obama was glad to eat canine meat. People felt a chill sweeping over them, said the story.

Stories of this kind are spreading far and wide. This is the real look of the United States before the presidential election.

Forsaken President (Jon Yong Hui, Rodong Sinmun, June 11, 2012)

It was disclosed that the financial magnates of the Wall Street offered a colossal sum of money to Mitt Romney, presidential candidate from the Republican Party. In the first 4 months of this year alone they gave him money nearly three times that given to Obama. For what then?

It is said that after his assumption to power Obama called for the reform of the Wall Street while accusing the financiers of greed. They need a political servant who is faithful to them in disregard of any resistance of people. In the United States there is afloat a rumor that the Wall Street threw away Obama in revenge of his betrayal for their support of his presidential election.

It is to wait and see who would win the forthcoming presidential election. But it is clear that no matter who may become U.S. president, he is a cat’s-paw of the monopoly capitalists.

In the United States where all kinds of social evils are rampant gun-related crimes are prevalent like a plague. According to data available, Americans have 90 firearms per 100, 35-50 % of the firearms possessed by civilians across the world. The inhabitants in the United States have 200 million weapons and everybody can easily purchase gun if he wants. Every year 3 million guns are manufactured for inhabitants in the United States.

Such being the situation, Americans are apt to wield guns against each other.

On May 21 last there was a basketball game between Oklahoma team and Los Angeles Lakers team in Oklahoma State. After the game was over, rooters of both sides began to quarrel before opening fire, wounding 8 heavily. Days before it two women in Louisville, Kentucky State had fired at random, killing three and wounding another three.

In the United States 12 000 people are murdered by guns every year and gun-related crimes kill 30 000 and wound 200 000 every year.

The question is that the United States based on extreme egoism and man-hating ideas connives or encourages the possession of guns by laws. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that not only the federal government, but state and local governments too can not infringe upon the rights of inhabitants to possess all kinds of weapons and an increasing number of states allows students to go to school carrying guns with them.

All facts show that the decadent social system of the United States can never do away with gun-related crimes.

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Sino-NK is a scholarly collective of young Sinologists and Koreanists dedicated to documenting and analyzing the borderland dynamics, transnational ties, and history of Northeast Asia. Sino-NK has been quoted in such outlets as The Economist, Washington Post, Politico, and Wall Street Journal, and is utilized frequently by scholars and journalists. Sino-NK endeavors to better understand North Korea’s relations with the world and to chart a path forward for digital (and) academic analysis.